The Theme of Love and Loss in Movies and Books

The following example essay on “The Theme of Love And Loss in movies and books” is about Titanic by James Cameron, The fault in our stars by Josh Boone, the book Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, the song Ghostin by Ariana Grande.

Love and Loss are two very frequent and natural feelings many young teenagers tend to experience and endure. Love and Loss are often beyond our control, is the central theme that is vividly emphasized in my four texts which is, Titanic (movie) by James Cameron, The fault in our stars (movie) directed by Josh Boone, it is also shared in the book Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, and also can be visualized in the song Ghostin by Ariana Grande. These themes work well together because they all have the significant connection of people losing their lovers over situations where they have zero control over, and which could heavily affect the individuals wellbeing in a positive or negative way.

Titanic directed by James Cameron is a sentimental movie which is focused on two lovers that are differentiated because of their wealth status. Rose, is a wealthy 1st class passenger who is unhappy and bored in life, and is openly seeking something out of her comfort zone. On the other hand, Jack is an unprivileged 3rd class passenger who lives a free and adventurous life regardless if hes not prosperous in wealth.

When these two characters meet and fall in love with each other they are almost immediately prohibited by Roses mother and fiancee from seeing each other again because of the wealth gap present, also of fear of societys prying judgemental eyes on seeing a wealthy woman with a lower class man.

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This shows us the differences present between these two young lovers that can be related back to my theme, Love and loss are often beyond our control. Which in this case is Jack and Rose not being able to be in control of their wealth classifications, when all they really want is to be with each other regardless of all the odds.

This is shown when Rose quotes You jump, I jump, Jack this is one of the movies most famous lines that has an important message behind it. This message means that if Jack jumps then she will jump too because shes involved and with him now and she cant back down. In the end, Jack dies of Hypothermia after the titanic sinks and Rose dies an old woman in the warmth of her bed, although they did not end up together in their lives, they were seen reunited in the afterlife.

This can be compared to Romeo and Juliet because these couples had disapproving parents that stopped both couples from being with each other over a reason which was out of each of the individuals control. In the titanic it was Roses mother that had created a barrier from Rose meeting Jack, and in Romeo and Juliet it was the feud of their two families that stopped the lovers from being with each other. This was also the reason why the individuals in both stories had lost one another.

These two stories gives importance to me because the director and the writer of these two texts wanted to vividly express what creating barriers between two lovers who only just want to be complete by being with each other can result in. During the time this movie and play was set, society had rules in which couples were not able to pick who they wanted to marry or be in love with, this is because many people had very little understanding about the whole process of love, and how we have no control over our fantasies and desires when we catch feelings unexpectedly.

Decisions about marriage where put into the hands of their parents, and this was because they felt like they knew what their child needed and the benefits it will give to them, but because of this mentality love was not given as an option to choose, and it was not considered right for couples in love because of the constant build up of societys interpretation of it being all wrong.

Romeo and Juliet written by William Shakespeare is a worldwide famous play that talks about two lovers, Romeo and Juliet; who were not able to be united with each other because of their feuding families, the Montagues and Capulets. This book strongly portrays the theme Love and Loss are beyond our control, since one of the main reasons why Romeo and Juliet were not able to be together was because of the disapproval of their families. They were suppressed from meeting each other and therefore, this resulted in Romeo and Juliet secretly getting married without telling their parents, and in the end it was the cause of the deaths of these two star crossed lovers. An evidence that clearly links this book to my theme is when Juliet comments.

This quote gives us an idea that she is asking Romeo to deny his past and his name, and the legacy of his family and in which she will do the same, by saying Ill no longer be a Capulet. This strongly signifies that she no longer wants to be identified by her family name which to her is the reason why they cant be united. She wants to free from the name that prevents her from her true love. This can be compared to another novel called The fault in our stars, which also articulates that death is present in both novels, and the cause of death is over a reason which is unable to be controlled over the two couples. In Romeo and Juliet it is because of the fight that was occuring between the two families, which was completely out of both Romeo and Juliets control since, there is no action that could have been done to stop the feud between the Montagues and Capulets.

And in the fault in our stars, Augustus and Hazel were both in late stages of cancer which was inevitable to eliminate. This can be connected to my theme of Love and Loss is often beyond our control since, Romeo and Juliet had both fell in love with each other which was unexpected and it was hard from them to resist from each other although they knew it was wrong, (since they felt like they were betraying their family).

Same way with Hazel and Augustus, they had shown up at a support group only to help them with their mental wellbeing when they had cancer, but they had left that support group in love with each other which gives a clear comparison that no one of these characters had any sort of idea or had the ability to stop love catching on them although the circumstances they were in were barriers. I find this very interesting because William Shakespeare wanted to vividly get the message that no matter how big the circumstance is, lovers that are in love will always find a way. In brief, if there is a will there’s a way.

The amount of determination, pain, and commitment Romeo and Juliet had to go through just to because of society preventing them to be with each other really amazes me and, gives me my opinion that love is truly a beautiful thing. The book, the fault in our stars written by John Green gives us a another important idea about my theme Love and Loss is often beyond our control.

The two characters in the book are battling cancer, Hazel who is battling lung cancer and Augustus with Leukemia. They meet at a support group and find that they have many things in common, and they have a lot of fun together causing both of them to fall in love with each other. They both know that their cancer will be the reason why they will not be together for too long and being attached to one another can cause more harm. Love is something that is out of control here, Hazel forgets about the circumstances that stand between them and let her most right feeling to take over, which is love.

But, Augustus has an early death in which leaves Hazel heartbroken, this loss was uncontrollable and expected. This can be proved by when Augustus leaves his last message for Hazel and in which he says, that getting hurt in this world is inevitable, but we do get to choose whom we allow to hurt us, and that he is happy with his choice, and hopes she likes hers too. This emphasizes that he knew that getting hurt was something they had no control over, but the only thing they did could control was their choices.

Both characters chose to be with each other in which cost them to be hurt, but in the end the time they had spent with each other including all the feelings they both experienced, was definitely worth it. This song has a strong relationship with Ariana Grandes song Ghostin, as there is many obvious significant connections made. One connection is that the women in these relationships lose their partner in a situation in which nothing could have been done to suppress this action from happening.

In the fault in our stars, Hazel loses Augustus to Leukemia (cancer), which is a disease that needs Augustus to go through long term treatment for a long period of time for him to be properly healed. In Ghostin, Ariana Grande was totally unaware of Mac Millers feelings towards her and her own feelings towards her relationship with Pete and Mac. Macs choices were out of Arianas knowledge and control, she was too busy trying to find out what she wanted to be completely aware of Macs actions.

Ghostin is written by Ariana Grande which is one of Arianas most recent musical art pieces and it is one that has a lot of significant meaning to her personally. This is also one of Ariana Grandes most relatable music, this is because it strongly links to my theme of Love and Loss are often beyond our control. In this song, Ariana sings about being in a relationship with someone, and being in love with someone that she can no longer be with again because he has passed on.

In Arianas personal life, she was engaged to Pete Davidson but still had feelings for Mac Miller (her ex), but she had only realised what her feelings about him really meant after he had died late last year from an unintentional drug overdose, which he had intended to use as a way to numb himself from grieving over the loss of Ariana. And after this incident she has kept on reminiscing over the fact that she had been hurting three people in this relationship, Pete, herself and Mac.

In which in this relationship she had no control over because she had no control over her feelings and what she was feeling about Mac whilst she was with Pete. This can be seen when she sings Though I wish he were here instead, dont want that living in your head, this distinctly gives us an powerful idea that Ariana really wants Mac to be back in her life again but she doesnt want Pete to be constantly be reminded that she loves someone else other than him, in which she cant grab control over.

His death was also out of Arianas control since she had no idea that he was still feeling the same way towards her. Overall, Ariana only lives the ghost of him in her memories and in her dreams as she further sings about the pain of losing him in her songs. I can relate this text back to the Fault in our stars because, both Hazel and Ariana experience the same type of heartbreak, from the same type of loss (losing someone to death) which are important points in relating these texts together.

Another similarity is when both of these women will have to adjust to a life where their lovers arent present, and will have to form strategies to move on and to better their lives from these losses. Although their lovers may live in their memories, they will have to find a solution to continue life the way it was before they had met their love.

This stuck out to me because I believe that although Love and loss is something out of our control, it doesnt stop us from making choices. Our choices are the only thing we are able to control and, in Ariana Grandes Ghostin song, she expressfully sings that because of her one choice she was putting three people in pain. Throughout my all four texts, I agree there were circumstances that were out of control, but the only time when these characters steered the story was when they made their choices, in which resulted in the aftermath of the story.

Over the four texts I have studied, it has been shown that my theme Love and Loss is often beyond our control is a bridge that links my four texts together which is from, The Titanic to Romeo and Juliet, on to The fault in our stars and to Ariana Grandes song Ghostin. All of these texts had a major connection that is that although Love and loss is something out of our control, our society has evolved over a period of time and we are now able to be freer in making choices towards our life decisions.

The time when the Titanic and Romeo and Juliet were set there were restrictions towards how they could love and be with, and many of those restrictions were unfair, and were judged upon wealth status, not anything else. But love doesnt happen when you see someone who is wealthy it, happens when you love the person for their personality and just them.

Which back in the day was considered wrong for Romeo and Juliet, but now days love is a bit different. We are now able to experience the freedom to choose in matters relating to love. Society is still judgemental towards lovers and their appearance and status, but because of evolution, this generation is able to given freedom to choose between love and loss regardless of any factors that society once bounded us from.